Memorial Day Weekend 2022 Part 1

 

The tradition continues.  I’m going to start off talking about a story I didn’t anticipate talking about at all, Aggie Baseball.  I pretty much we were done with them this season.  I was delighted to be wrong. 

 

5-10-22

I need to begin with a little aside here.  Aggie alum and current Baltimore Oriole, Kyle Bradish, impressed with an 11-strikeout performance against the Cardinals for his first big league win.  I wasn’t watching that game, but was watching the next game and listening the Cardinal announcers raving about him. 

 

5-25-22 WAC Baseball Tournament

The Aggies made it into the tournament.  They were in last place going into their final series against Utah Valley, a game behind them in the standings.  The first game left the Aggies down by 6 going into the ninth.  I didn’t watch the game, so don’t know whether to credit Aggie hitting or Wolverine pitching, but seven runs later, NM State won 15-14.  I’m shaking my head even writing that.  I can’t imagine what it would have been like there at Utah Valley watching.  The Aggies ended the drama early the next day with a run-rule win.  Sammy Natera started that game off the IL.

 

To begin the tournament, NM State would face the #1 seed in the Southwest Division, Sam Houston.  They would be without shortstop and leadoff batter, Brandon Dieter, who was out for undisclosed reasons.  He’d started every game this season.  Pablo Cortes was tabbed as the Aggies’ starter and did not disappoint going 7 2/3 innings yielding only 1 run.  Edwin Martinez-Pagani was the offensive star with a 2-run scoring triple.  Tommy Tabak somehow muscled a home run out of a ballpark with outfield walls beyond unaided human sight as an insurance run.  Alex Bustamonte shut the door with a 4-out save and a 3-1 upset win.       

 

The game finished right before El Paso Sportstalk started.  Hearing nothing about the game in the opening segment, I sent them a message about the win.  Steve Kaplowitz wasn’t able to get to it until the end of the show, but was delighted to talk about it, as Cortes is from Juarez.  As vain as it is, I enjoyed him giving me credit for the tip over the air. 

 

The Chihuahuas were playing a surprise day game in El Paso a bit earlier.  (It was a surprise to me.)  They were down 6 runs to the newly rebranded Sugarland Space Cowboys.  I tuned in just as the pups began a 9-run seventh inning and took the lead.  They’d win 16-8.  Strangely in last night’s game, the Chihuahuas had been down 6 runs in the seventh.  (A weird pattern seems to be forming here.)  They tied it at 8 in the ninth and would finally win it in a walk off in the twelfth, 11-10. 

 

5-26-22

A run-rule win for the Aggies!  Are you kidding me?  That’s what happened Thursday night at the WAC Tournament over UTRGV, 10-0 in 7 innings.  Ian Mejia pitched all 7 innings in just over 80 pitches.  The Aggies jacked 3 home runs at the cavernous confines of Hohokam Stadium.  Logan Galina hit his conference-leading 21-st homer and drove in 3 runs in the game.  Tommy Tabak continued his hot streak going 3 for 4 with 2 RBI’s.  They’re in semi’s now and will play on Saturday.  The only question now is who’s going to pitch?     

 

Later that night, the Rangers played the A’s on the MLB free game.  It was audio-only, but I was happy to get to hear Eric Nadel and Matt Hicks again.  They chuckled over the “crowd” at the Oakland County Coliseum of 3,000.  “More of a gathering,” they called it.  I checked tonight’s Chihuahuas game.  They had 7,000 in attendance with no special promotions or fireworks.  Strangely, I’ve watched a couple of fan-made videos of trips to the Oakland stadium recently.  It’s a dump.  The fans are great.  There’s a drum section.  There’s a famous wandering concessions guy there.  Other than that, it’s got to be the worst facility in the MLB.  Before you object, at least at Tropicana Field you’re sitting comfortably indoors.

 

5-27-22

Who are these “Aggies” that are playing the WAC Tournament and where have they been all year?  Yep, they won again.  This time it was a defeat of Sacramento State, 7-3.  Aggie pitching featured a group of bullpen arms that was mostly best-known for explosive decompression.  These guys all suddenly looked very competent.  Cade Swenson led the way with four strong innings only allowing a single run.  There was no big breakdown after he left, as has often been the case this season.

 

Offensively, Cal Villareal slid into the leadoff spot and went 4 for 4 with 3 doubles.  Edwin Martinez-Pagani and Tommy Tabak drove in 5 of the Aggies’ runs.  NM State started the game hot with 3 runs and never looked back.  They kept adding runs early, even without having another big inning. 

 

The Aggies did have a bit of problem with playing a pretty big lead later in the game.  There were two errors by Kevin Jimenez, playing out-of-position at short, and one by Logan Galina.  Both of these guys are normally sure-handed.  (Logan was the only Aggie given regular season honors, being on the offensive and defensive first teams.)  The team also didn’t score for the last three innings.  I felt like they were playing tight as the moment was catching up to them.  Thankfully, the pitchers didn’t succumb to the pressure.             

 

Well, the Aggies are on to the Championship game.  A month ago, I would not have believed that sentence was possible this season.  They’re going to face a good team, but it will be team that had to play earlier in the day and has played at least one more game than they have.  (The Aggies have played the minimum.)  Only using one reliever in those first two tournament games was a huge advantage on Friday.  The Aggie bullpen is probably at its best in limited doses.  With a good pitching start (whoever that will be) and continued good hitting, the Aggies have a shot.

Part 2

Postcards From the Edge: Mom's Family Cards 33

The Japanese Garden at Hershey Gardens, Hershey Pennsylvania.  As if anybody cares about going to a garden in "Chocolate Town, USA."  Good thing they didn't send a card of the chocolate factory.  I'm already desperately wanting a Hershey bar with almonds. 

Bear Lake, Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado.  Simply stunning.

Okay, mom sent this card from Las Cruces, New Mexico to Grandma after we got here.  Apparently, she didn't think much of the place with the "This says it all!" note on front.  This card is completely misleading.  Las Cruces looks nothing like this, even back in the 70's.  

 

Postcards From the Edge: Mom's Family Cards 32

Christmas postcard.  This was from dad's boss.  Cool Olympic stamp. 

Bear Lake, Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado.  Wow!    

Hershey Park, Hershey, Pennsylvania.  Why would you go to this garden when you were in the self-described, "Chocolate Town, USA?"  Now I just want a candy bar.

Postcards From the Edge: Mom's Family Cards 31

Kilauea Volcano, Hawaii.  This postcard from a couple of neighbors, who moved to Honolulu.  They were nice people.  I like that it's addressed to "The Harrises."  (Might have wanted to go with "Harris Family" there.)  Cool Olympic archery stamp.

Mount Jefferson, Oregon.  What a beautiful, colorful view.

Pea Ridge National Military Park, Arkansas.

Comics Review: The Art of Jim Lee Vol. 1

Trinity Dust Cover, There's also art on cover of the book

Yeah, this thing is even more impressive in person.   

 

I still had $10 on that Barnes & Noble gift card that I used last month (4-14-22) on an Archie comic.  When I was back at the store, I decided to get the then latest issue of Baseball America.  It’s a thin tabloid, but they’re charging $10 for it.  Don’t worry.  I’m not reviewing it.  It was a good issue though with a rundown of all the new rules changes for the season and profiles on the Tigers, Royals, Orioles, Pirates, and the Mariners (basically saying that these loser franchises may get better in the near future).  (The current issue questions “Is your ballpark compliant?” and has features on women in baseball.  I passed that one over.)   

 

In the comics section, I was surprised by two volumes of Moon Knight omnibuses.  I was unsurprised by the price, $45 apiece.  Thanks to the crappy new TV show, they’d pushed these out in softcover.  I was tempted, but the Bill Sienkiewicz material that I was most interested in was spread over the two books.  Also, it didn’t seem to include the earliest material from Werewolf by Night.  I’d also read a lot of Book #2 and hadn’t liked most of it.  (It was that Fist of Khonshu stuff.  I had a subscription in the 80’s.)  They’re still there.  I might weaken at some point.

 

As I walked by the Bargain Books sections, I saw this oversized hardback just lying there for $10.  The suggested retail price is $40, so I was shocked by this deal.  After a quick flip through, I realized I needed to have this, even though I don’t have anywhere to put.  Aside from being a pretty picture book, I thought that there’d be some practical value, since there’s plenty of good female art inside for me to butcher with my own sketching.

 

Artist Jim Lee came to prominence drawing the X-Men.  There’s no X-Men art inside, which is too bad, because this book really made me want to see his old issues.  This volume just contains his DC and Wildstorm work.  This is also named, “Volume 1,” but there’s no Volume 2.  Although it has the New 52 versions of DC’s Trinity on the cover, that material isn’t covered inside.  Overall, this is a picture book.  There’s some text about the characters and stories, but not in a detailed way.

Frank Miller inspired Batman

The Batcave and the Batmobiles

Black Canary

Catwoman, I still prefer the Jim Balent version, but this one comes closest to changing my mind.

First up, and the biggest section, is on Lee’s take on Batman.  Hush is his most well-known work outside of the X-Men.  I have a beat-up, used issue of the series and was very impressed by it.  (I’m surprised I didn’t review it here on the blog.)  I did pass over a trade paperback version the last time I saw one, though.  That was probably a mistake.  However, Lee’s done other work with Batman and drawn him in slightly different ways each time.      

Jim Lee has also done work on Superman.  Notice how great Superman looks with the red shorts, as opposed to without on the cover.  It’s the same way with Batman’s shorts.  The Classic look is “Classic” for a reason—it looks good.  (Superman without the shorts is Earth-3’s evil Superman, Ultraman.)   

 

Supergirl

Wonder Woman, Donna Troy, and Wonder Girl

Green Lantern Corps and Superman, finished and pencils

There’s a small section with Jim Lee’s work on other DC heroes, along with his collaboration with Stan Lee on Wonder Woman.  

Voodoo and Grifter (what an unfortunate superhero name) from Wildcats

Christy Blaze from Divine Right

Death, I'm surprised Jim Lee didn't give her a belt with a bunch of pouches and some big guns

The other half of the book features mostly Lee’s Wildstorm characters.  I’m not familiar with Wildcats or most the rest of them, except for Gen 13, which I did like (though that was mostly the J. Scott Campbell issues).  I’d mostly bounced from comics in the 90’s.  Gen 13, X-Force, and Sandman were the only titles I really collected then.  One of those titles is a bit different from the other two.  By the same token, Jim Lee also branched out on some alternative material with Vertigo, company promotional material, video games, and movie work.  

Saturn Girl from the Legion of Superheroes, Hey, Imra.  Read my mind.  What am I thinking?  -Slap!- 

The volume finishes with Jim Lee’s work on a Legion of Superheroes story.  Apparently, they’re one of his favorites.  (One of mine, too.)  Him doing a run on LSH would have brought me to the comic book shop every month.  As is, the group has been completely destroyed by universal reboots and remakes.  Oh, well.

 

Anyway, this book was a cool random pickup.  I almost feel like I stole this.

Comics Review: The Rocketeer and Wonder Girl

Free Comic Book Day snuck up on me, as usual, at the start of this month.  I heard about it on the Friday before from a comics review video.  I wasn’t convinced.  My last trip for free comics didn’t go well (5-5-18), specifically we arrived, “Too late,” for the free comics, though the store was still open.  Frankly, every time I’ve gone out for FCBD it’s been disappointing at best.  Times I haven’t gone have been hand-wringing affairs, where I berate myself for being too lazy or whatever to leave my apartment.

 

I checked out the FCBD website and noticed a Red Sonja comic that looked good.  I checked that Zia Comics was participating in the event, and I knew that they nominally carry Red Sonja comics.  So off I went on Saturday morning.  I was surprised by the large number of people at the Downtown Mall for the weekly Farmer’s Market.  It was like a big street party.  That was good to see.

 

Inside Zia Comics, there were plenty people shopping.  I looked over the new comics racks and easily found a couple comics I was interested in.  I’d been afraid I’d have to sweat out finding something to buy.  However, I didn’t see the free comics anywhere.  I went to the register to check out and finally asked about them.  I was apparently, “Too early,” for the free comics. 

 

The free comics were only being of offered from 2:00pm to 5:00pm.  Never mind that there were already a bunch of people at the shop.  Never mind that they were going to be handing out the comics after the market closed and most of the crowd had gone.  (I did go back and look at their website.  If you follow a link to their Facebook page, there they give you the times.)  [Edit: Looking for a third time, they did list the giveaway times on their website.  This still begs the question: Why weren’t they just giving comics away the whole time they were open?]  It was going to be an hour and a half until the handout.  I’d already eaten lunch, so there was no reason to stay to eat somewhere nearby.  I was also missing another free event—all of the games being free on MLB.TV. 

 

I left.  I looked at my two purchased comics.  They were $5 apiece, that’s a $1 increase over regular comics from my last trip (12-17-21).  These had better be the best two comics I’ve ever bought, or I’m done going to Zia Comics, I thought to myself.  I actually sat on these for over a week before reading them in fear of my curse.  I actually took them over when I went to see dad and he read them first.  (He kind of likes Wonder Girl from previous issues, I think.) 

 

So, here we’ll see what I think of them.  A week after the event, I was watching another comics review video.  The guy reviewed his FCBD comics.  The first issue he held up was that Red Sonja comic and he said it was the best of the bunch.  That’s swell.     

 

The Rocketeer: The Great Race #2

I’m a big fan of the Disney movie from the 90’s.  I was exposed to the comic in the 80’s, but never got to buy an issue.  The cover of this issue is great (except for the price), so I couldn’t resist. 

The inside artwork isn’t bad, but it’s kind of dark and muddled.  Still, the character-work is good.  However, the technical aircraft art is a bit crude and sometimes out-of-scale.  Since the story is all about an air race, this is a problem.  Ultimately, the problem is the original artist and creator of the Rocketeer, Dave Stevens.  His artwork is incomparable.  You’re almost better off using a completely different style than trying to emulate his.

I wouldn’t say the story is decompressed, but not a lot happens.  Basically a trans-Atlantic air race begins and there’s a couple of subplots going on involved with it.  I think seeing the whole story, it would be more interesting.  In all, this story fits in well with the Rocketeer setting.

My favorite part of the issue, though, was the text section in the back about Dave Stevens.  It gave the history of the character in publication.  There were interviews with artists and others who knew Stevens.  It’s not all praise, but everyone was in awe of his talent.  There’s the story of Stevens holding up a finished story for weeks because he wasn’t satisfied with his drawing of a dog’s leg.   

 

Overall, the text saves this issue from me tossing it into the trade pile.  I don’t know if there’s going to be a trade paperback to wait for.  If you’re a fan of the character and frequent the comic book store, I’d recommend collecting all the issues.  Oh yeah, if you’re a Bettie Page fan, she’s here.  (I don’t know.  She’s iconic, but Jennifer Connelly looked awfully good in the movie.)

Trial of Amazons: Wonder Girl #1

One last chance for comic book redemption here.  I’d heard a review of the whole Trial of the Amazons storyline on Thinking Critical’s channel (I can’t easily find the specific video) and he did not think well of it.  The only thing he praised were the parts with Joelle Jones’ artwork (as I have).  (This issue also has a really thick cover.  It’s not worth an extra dollar.) 

I won’t speak to the rest of the larger storyline, but this issue is great.  The art is a huge selling point, of course.  It’s too bad about the event storyline, because this issue sets things up well.  There are flashbacks and flashforwards to establish and build tension.  Pity it apparently doesn’t resolve in a satisfactory way in the other parts of the series.

Wonder Woman is a background character in this issue and apparently the rest of the event storyline.  The focus here is on Yara, the new Wonder Girl.  However, Cassie, also Wonder Girl (?), gets attention, along with Artemis.  Put in a good storyline, these are interesting, likable characters.  Unfortunately, there’s too much Agenda in the other issues for these characters to properly thrive. 

This issue does feature the Brazilian tribe of Amazons.  There are also references to the other Amazon tribes for a contest amongst them in Themyscira.  This reminds me of Green Lantern and the various color corps, which were probably unnecessary.  In this case, it makes better sense.  Did there need to be another Wonder Girl?  Maybe not, but Yara is a good character and the Brazilian Amazon origin gives her legit a place to start from. 

 

In addition to the contest, there are vague warnings about Doom’s Doorway and the assassination of Queen Hippolyta (not to bury the lead).  With the murder mystery, the contest, the possibility of demonic invasion, and the characters, all of the ingredients are there for a great comic book event story.  So much for that, but at least we have this pretty comic and can imagine how it might been something great. 

 

Am I going back to Zia Comics in spite of their lousy service and overpriced comics?  Thank Joelle Jones for saving you guys this time.  I sympathized with Ya Boi Zack, who talked in a video (I again don’t remember which one) about going into a shop and leaving without buying anything because nothing appealed to him.  I’d had the same experience recently.  I’d wanted to give them the business, but they didn’t have anything I wanted, apart from some very expensive large omnibuses.  I think I’ll only go back when I’ve got a good reason to and not just because “it’s been awhile.”  I might show up for Free Comic Book Day again, just to get my damn free comics satisfaction.               

Postcards From the Edge: Mom's Family Cards 30

The Holiday Inn at Griffin, Georgia near downtown Atlanta.  This is from Grandma and Grandpa's trip.  I miss that mascot guy.

 

Christmas postcard.  I really should have put these in some kind of order, but you have no idea how many of these there are in mom's collection.

St. Elmo, Colorado.  It's a ghost town.  Neat Olympics stamp.